OMELIE / Omelie EN

04 lug 2021

04/07/2021 – 14th Sunday in O. T. - B

04/07/2021 – 14^th Sunday in O. T. - B

Reading 1 EZ 2,2-5 Psalm 122/123 Reading 2 2COR 12,7-10 Gospel MK 6,1-6

Today’s Psalm changes into prayer the behaviour of the prophet, of Jesus and His apostle. “Our eyes are fixed on the Lord, pleading for his mercy… we are more than sated with contempt!”. The prophet is sent by God to talk to whom do not want to listen. What an effort! He needs to announce the word of God, the Word which people already know, but which they do not want to obey. The only result of this announcement will be at least the fact that they will be aware that God did not forget to be so, that He is always their God, even if He has to become judge in order to condemn them because of their disobedience. They will know that God is able to reach them again with His Word: if they want to listen to Him, they will know they can.

Jesus lives the same experience of the prophet, nay, an experience even more clear. On top of the fact that He announces God’s Word with His voice, He can be recognised as someone sent by the Father also because of the actions He performs. His hands perform miracles so marvelous that nobody have ever seen the equal. Everyone recognise Him, like everyone recognise that from His lips comes a wisdom never heard before. Despite this, the hearts stay close. Who is trusting Him? Who is taking His words as God’s Word? They know Him, or better, about Him they know some facts: they know He is one of them, how He knows how to work, what are His habits, His ways to react, His preferences, they know who His parents are, recognise the tone of His voice and the sound of His steps. The wisdom and the miracles of His hands are not enough so those who know Him might recognise in Him a tool of the Father’s love. Or better, the signs would be more than enough, but the hearts are not humble enough.

Jesus is not surprised: He realises He is sharing in the sufferings of all the prophets. Those who He loves the most and by whom He is known the most distance themselves from His heart and His faith. In this way He cannot give them all He wanted, He cannot offer His life, the deep joy which instead receive from Him the little and the simple. In order to help them, He performs some more miracle among them, but they remain fast in the disbelief.

You are amazed by the citizens of Nazareth. But consider maybe you too are behaving in the same way. Maybe God is approaching you with His wisdom through some person you know, some friend or relative, some priest? Have you never seen some miracle of the goodness of the Father? Why are you not taking His words seriously? Why are you not taking any step in order to get closer to these people in order to enjoy even more your Lord’s Word?

The prophet who realises he is not listened to, suffers; he suffers because of the stubbornness of whom do not want to hear God’s Word, but also because he feels rejected, expelled, discriminated. This suffering is felt today by many priests, who feel weighting on them the rejection which many so-called Christians have towards the gospel and the Church, so towards the fullness of God’s light and grace. It is a suffering that can become temptation. They are in fact tempted to give up. But even when many are listening willingly to their announcement of the Word, the temptations are waiting for them: in particular, pride and vainglory. The same apostle Paul recognised that temptation might have ruined his life and his ministry, and therefore he accepted as a grace the weakness and the suffering of illness. He recognised that this suffering was given him by “an angel of Satan”, but he accepted it as a precious tool which the Father’s mercy could make use of: he will have remained humble servant of God, always needing His grace. And besides, his weakness would have been the right environment for the power of the Lord to show itself. If our presence and our word, when we are weak and tired, without any attractiveness which meets human sympathy, are able to get someone to Jesus, then this means that He Himself is behind it. Saint Paul is therefore happy to accept the weakness, the persecution and the offenses that put up a bad show for him. In this situation the Lord will be able to show His ability to attract to Himself men through the cross. The apostle then concludes: “when I am weak, then I am strong”!

We will continue then to keep our eyes focused on the Lord to see the signs of His will, as the psalm is suggesting. He knows what is good for us and what serves His kingdom well. We obey Him, and He will act with all the freedom of His love, using us in every situation, in health and in sickness, in wealth and in indigence. If we obey Him, nothing will prevent Him from showing in us and through us His wisdom and love.